Patients face the longest average waits for being passed on by ambulance crews to A&E at hospitals in the Midlands, data released by NHS England has revealed.
Analysis of figures by The Independent shows in October, eight of the 10 worst-performing hospital trusts in England were in the Midlands, with University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM) coming top.
It comes as West Midlands Ambulance Service, which covers part of the region, said its crews lost 41,000 hours waiting outside hospitals with patients in October, compared to 31,000 in September.
And today The Independent reports on a 84-year-old woman who was stuck in an ambulance for 10 hours outside Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham. Her family have called for more compassion for the elderly from the NHS. A spokesperson for NHS England said the wait was “absolutely unacceptable”.
NHS standards set as part of the an urgent and emergency care plan for 2025/26 state that ambulance handovers should take no longer than 45 minutes, to help crews get back on the road to support patients.
The Association of Ambulance Chief Executives also estimated thousands of people suffered “severe harm” as a result of ambulances being delayed for more than an hour at A&E, in a report published two years ago.
However, the average time for patient handovers by ambulance crews to A&E was above 45 minutes at 17 hospitals trusts across England in October. Nine trusts recorded average times of above an hour.
The longest average wait was at UHNM, which runs Royal Stoke University Hospital, where it stood at 1 hour 58 minutes in October. The trust also saw more than half of handovers take longer than the 45-minute standard.
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which runs four hospitals in Birmingham, had an average wait of 1 hour 50 minutes, and The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which runs Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and Princes Royal Hospital in Telford, had an average wait of 1 hour 27 minutes.
Also in the top worst-performing trusts, and based in the Midlands, were Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust and The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.
The best-performing trust, with the number of handovers above 1,000, was The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where the average wait was just 13 minutes. It was followed by Medway NHS Foundation Trust and Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.
The figures come amid a record month for A&E attendances and ambulance incidents for October, according to NHS England.
A&E attendances were 37,000 higher than October last year, to 2.36m. The rise equated to more than 1,200 more attendances per day this October. Ambulance incidents also jumped nearly 50,000 compared with October last year, to 806,441.
An NHS spokesperson said the organisation was committed to reducing ambulance handover delays across the country. They added: “All local health systems should be working jointly with ambulance, hospital and community services to ensure no one in an ambulance is left waiting outside a hospital for more than 45 minutes.”
The Independent has contacted the worst-performing hospital trusts for ambulance handover times for comment.
At East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, where the average ambulance handover wait in October was 1 hour 25min, bosses said getting paramedics back on the road was a priority.
Mike Meers, director of digital and logistics, said: “The number of very unwell patients coming into hospital can mean that at busy times it takes longer for ambulance crews to handover a patient’s care to hospital staff. But patient safety is always most important and patients waiting with ambulance crews are regularly assessed.
"We have introduced detailed recovery plans for urgent care and are working closely with system partners to ensure patients are able to go home as soon as they are well. We are already seeing improvements from these measures and further support is set to be put in place in the coming weeks which will ensure we continue to provide the best care for our patients throughout the winter period."
At Nottingham University Hospitals, chief operating officer Andrew Hall said the trust was working closely with East Midlands Ambulance Service to implement improvements designed to speed up handovers.
He added: “This includes increasing the availability of ward beds during the winter period to help reduce waiting times. We apologise to patients who have been affected by ambulance handover delays.
“Our teams are working very hard to see patients as quickly as they can based on clinical priority. The public can help us by using the most appropriate NHS services are available to meet their different needs, including pharmacies, urgent treatment centres, and mental health crisis support.”
